A new Pew Research Center religious diversity study - based on methodology developed by Weekly Number author Brian Grim - finds that about one-in-three people live in countries with high religious diversity. (Also see Chapter 3 in Grim's co-authored book, The World's Religions in Figures.)

A previous analysis by the Weekly Number finds that the 12 countries identified in the study as having very high religious diversity each outpaced the world's economic growth between 2008 and 2012.

While the majority of the world’s countries (59%) have relatively low religious diversity, because many countries with low diversity have small populations, only a third (33%) of the world’s people live in them according to the study. About a third (32%) of the world’s people live in countries with moderate religious diversity and another third (35%) live in countries with high or very high religious diversity.

Most of Singapore’s religious diversity is attributable to past and present immigration from other Asian countries. For instance, a previous Pew Research study found that Singapore’s religious diversity is mirrored in the religious diversity of its approximately 2 million foreign-born residents: Buddhists (31%), religiously unaffiliated (18%), Christians (17%), Muslims (14%), Hindus (10%), other religions (10%).

The study groups countries into four categories of religious diversity: very high (top 5%), high (next 16%), moderate (next 20%), and low (remaining 59%).

VERY HIGH: Among the 12 countries with very high religiously diversity, the study finds that six are in Asia-Pacific (Singapore, Taiwan, Vietnam, South Korea, China and Hong Kong); five are in sub-Saharan Africa (Togo, Guinea Bissau, Ivory Coast, Benin and Mozambique); and one is in Latin America and the Caribbean (Suriname).

HIGH: Religious diversity is high in 36 countries. The Pew study finds that nearly eight-in-ten countries with high religious diversity are located in one of three regions: Asia-Pacific (10 countries), sub-Saharan Africa (9) or Europe (9). In France, for instance, though the Christian population forms a majority (63%), sizable populations of the religiously unaffiliated (28%) and Muslims (8%) are also present.

MODERATE religious diversity occurs in 47 countries. Regionally, the Pew study finds that Europe has the largest number of countries with moderate religious diversity (19). The Asia-Pacific region and sub-Saharan Africa each have nine countries with moderate diversity. Two of the five countries in North America have moderate religious diversity, including the United States. The United States has moderate religious diversity when considering the eight religious groups analyzed in the Pew study because Christians constitute a sizable majority (78%) of the 2010 population. The only others that make up a substantial share of the population are the religiously unaffiliated (16%). The remaining major religious groups in the U.S. are represented in only small percentages: Jews (1.8%), Buddhists (1.2%), Muslims (0.9%), other religions (0.6%), Hindus (0.6%) and Folk (0.2%). However, if diversity among Christians is considered, religious diversity would be higher. The U.S. is about half Protestant, nearly a quarter Catholic and 16% religiously unaffiliated.

LOW religious diversity occurs in 137 countries. The Pew study finds that each region has a sizable share of countries with low religious diversity. Indeed, more than half of countries with low religious diversity are in two regions: Latin America-Caribbean (36 countries) and Asia-Pacific (35). However, the Middle East-North Africa region stands for having the overall lowest level of religious diversity because it has the highest concentration of one religion, Islam. In Egypt, for instance, Muslims account for nearly the entire population (up to 95%).*

* The Pew Research estimate is lower than church statistics. See Pew's comments on the issue.

The Weekly Number's analysis of a new Pew Research Center report - a study based on methodology developed by Brian J. Grim - finds that the 12 countries identified in the study as having very high religious diversity each outpaced the world's economic growth between 2008 and 2012.

Among the 12 countries (5%) with very high religiously diversity, all are located outside of Europe and North America. Six are in Asia-Pacific (Singapore, Taiwan, Vietnam, South Korea, China and Hong Kong); five are in sub-Saharan Africa (Togo, Guinea Bissau, Ivory Coast, Benin and Mozambique); and one is in Latin America and the Caribbean (Suriname).

Between 2008 and 2012, the world's average growth in gross domestic product (GDP) was 1.7%. By contrast, each of the 12 countries with very high religious diversity had higher average growth, and most by substantial margins.

Average GDP growth between 2008-2012 in China, the world's 9th most religiously diverse country, averaged 9.3%. In seven of the twelve very diverse countries, average GDP growth was double or more that of the world average of 1.7%: Mozambique (7.0%), Vietnam (5.8%), Singapore (4.4%), Surinam (4.1%), Togo (4.0%), Benin (3,8%) and Taiwan (3.4%). In the remaining four very diverse countries, average GDP growth was also measurably higher than the world average: South Korea (2.9%), Ivory Coast (2.6%), Hong Kong (2.6%) and Guinea-Bissau (2.3%).

The underlying data for the religious diversity report are based on a December 2012 Pew Research Center study of the size and distribution of eight major world religions: Buddhists, Christians, folk religions, Hindus, Jews, Muslims, other religions considered as a group and the religiously unaffiliated. Taken together, these eight major groups comprise the world’s total population.

CHINA: While the Weekly Number does not attribute economic success directly to religious diversity, the case of China is of note.

During the Cultural Revolution of the 1960s and 1970s, religion was completely outlawed and people were routinely beaten and killed for having superstitious or religious beliefs. While it is true that today China has very high government restrictions on religion relative to other countries in the world, current conditions are far less restrictive than they were in the 1960s and 1970s.

Today, China has the world’s largest Buddhist population, largest folk religionist population, largest Taoist population, 9th largest Christian population and 17th largest Muslim population – ranking between Yemen and Saudi Arabia (Pew Research Center 2012).

It is undeniable that had the Cultural Revolution’s draconian restrictions on religion and all segments of society continued, China’s economic progress would not have been possible.

The World Bank reported this month that the five countries accounting for two-thirds of the world's 1.2 billion extreme poor are India (33% of all extreme poor), China (13%), Nigeria (7%), Bangladesh (6%) and the Democratic Republic of Congo (5%). While each - notably China, India and Nigeria - have growing classes of millionaires and billionaires, they also have the world's largest populations of people living on less than $1.25 per day, the extreme poor.

Another thing these five countries share in common is that each is beset by religious hostilities significantly higher than the world median. Such hostilities include mob or sectarian violence, religion-related terrorism or conflict, organized attempts to dominate public life with a particular perspective on religion, harassment over attire for religious reasons, and other religion-related intimidation or abuse as measured by the Pew Research Center’s social hostilities involving religion index.

NIGERIA: On April 12, reports indicate that 135 more lives were claimed in ongoing armed attacks attributed to the Islamist Boko Haram group. Sola Tayo, a Nigeria expert at the London-based think tank Chatham House, said that if the attacks spread to the south of the country the effect on the economy would be “catastrophic,” adding that Boko Haram has threatened to strike Lagos, the country’s economic hub, and has more recently threatened to start attacking oil pipelines in the Niger Delta. This month, according to a new valuation, Nigeria is now recognized as Africa's largest economy. But doing business in Nigeria is "not a place for the faint-hearted," according to the Economist.INDIA: As the general election proceeds this week, the shadow of sectarian violence continues, with troops standing guard to prevent clashes as happened last August in leaving scores of Muslims dead and 50,000 displaced in this Hindu-majority country. The likely prime minister may be Narendra Modi, a Hindu nationalist. Ilan Greenberg observes that Modi presents his platform, however, as singularly devoted to an agenda of economic growth and development. “Toilets not temples” is another of his slogans.

CHINA: Knife-wielding terrorist attacked a train station in Kunming, leaving nearly 30 dead and more than 100 injured. The attackers are suspected of being from minority Uighurs fighting for a separate homeland in northwest China. If the identities of the attackers are confirmed, the attack is a new and worrying escalation, spreading the violence far inland. And China's poverty is located in religious and ethnic regions. Though such minorities make up about 8% of the population, nearly 40% of China's poorest counties (230 of 592) are located in provinces or regions inhabited by ethnic minorities. BANGLADESH: Last month, human rights defenders from Bangladesh, gathered in Geneva at a meeting sponsored by the World Council of Churches (WCC), are calling the international community’s attention to the severe persecution of Bangladesh’s religious and ethnic minorities. They identified the rise of religious extremism, fundamentalism and lack of security as some of the major reasons behind human rights violations in the country. D.R. CONGO: Up to 50,000 children are at risk of being stigmatized and persecuted as witches due to economic downturns. According to UNICEF Child Protection Officer Eloge Olengabo, “Families who cannot fend for themselves frequently take refuge in the belief that their bad luck is rooted in the witchcraft of their offspring.”

What can be done?Such evidence suggests that solving problems of poverty cannot ignore religion and solving problems of religious freedom cannot ignore the problems of poverty. For an initiative aiming to address both, see the new Religious Freedom & Business Foundation's initiative to counter extremist radicalization.